Soulflayer
"It's too cute" . . . ."Powerful but ultimately too inconsistent" . . . ."Magical Christmas-land" . . . ."A card for the casual players" . . . .
I'm not so sure. I wanted to brew with this crazy demon, something I rarely take the time to do at this point in my life. My results make me cautiously optomistic at the viability of this deck.
Initially, I wanted to shove this guy in a Sidisi Whip shell with Hornet Queen, Whip of Erebos, and all the rest, except add in Chromanticore and rework the early game to include more self-mill. That version ultimately failed. It felt too inconsistent, like many people identified with the card, because it was fighting between casting crazy Soulflayers and playing the grindy game Sidisi Whip is best at. Too many angles, too many cards to shove into a 60 card deck.
So then I stepped back and decided hey, the card is powerful when abused, why don't I stretch the strategy as far as possible, commit 110%? Why do I even pretend I want to cast Chromanticore instead of just delving him? Out come the whips, the giants and hornets and coursers. Instead I decided to maximize the chance of a turn 3 Soulflayer, and a super gross one to boot. Satyr Wayfinder mills things I want, and instead Commune with the Gods and Taigam's Scheming find me my demon and chuck the maximum amount of good creatures. Below I will identify my less-obvious choices.
The Breakdown:
Gurmag Swiftwing
- What a crappy 2-drop right?? Now pretend its a 4/4, on turn 3. Not so bad. This thing is a great addition in making your flayers super powerful
Monastery Siege - Easy casting cost and great utility, this can be found with Commune with the Gods and the first ability gives a bit of reach and fills your yard at your discretion, the second saves you and your creatures a lot of trouble. Who says Jeskai gets all the fun?
Pharika, God of Affliction/Thassa, God of the Sea - Three you ask? It's a good little card at times but why three? How about an indestructable flayer? Amazingly useful.
Silumgar, the Drifting Death - seriously who has time to say that let alone play this guy!? But he's a pretty good finisher all on his own. He can give your flayer flying and hexproof (which by the way, delving a Sylvan Caryatid gets you too), clears the skies of any pesky hornets, kills elspeth tokens, and any other little annoying buggers you run into.
Torrent Elemental
- makes a flying flayer, and then is able to be cast again, and then in the late game with a clogged board he gets your team through.
Additional thoughts:
This list may seem skimpy on removal, but the three Thoughtseize fill much of that roll while being so cheap it doesn't interfere with your curve.
The sideboard is still pretty loose, but I'd like to highlight putting thassa and pharika in against control to fight boardwipes when delved, and set up your draws when cast. Also, gods on a soulflayer + Crux of Fate is a great plan to set up one-sided board wipes against midrange opponents.
Dead Drop is worth mentioning, as it is super cheap in this deck consistently, and stops U/W Heroic, and hopefully also the mirror if you somehow come across someone else on the earth playing this (if it doesn't catch on of course). Right now I have Tasigur in instead, but the Drop is a strong contender in the SB depending on how the meta works out.
I really don't know about Tasigur, the Golden Fang. Some love him and some hate, I'm leaning towards strong dislike. But for now he's in the SB to fight those grindier games, who knows, he may just be a powerhouse creature for 1 black with extra stuff, doesn't sound too bad.
So there it is, my Soulflayer list. I don't know if this strategy has any staying power as the format develops, but I think its an excellent choice for early on. Like I said, I'm cautiously optimistic that it'll be good. Thanks for viewing and please playtest this baby, have some fun and let me know what you think!
